About

Alex Lowe

Alex Lowe was not only one of the great alpinists of his time, he was also a man who had a remarkable impact on many of the people indigenous to the high mountain regions where his expeditions took him. Alex was blessed with many unique gifts including the ability to climb the world’s most challenging peaks, and the capability to connect with, and love, the people he met in some of the most remote areas of the world. His sheer enthusiasm for adventure and compassion for the difficult lives led by these people stands as a continuing inspiration for those who knew and admired Alex.

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The Foundation

The Foundation

The Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation (ALCF) is dedicated to preserving Alex Lowe's legacy by providing direction and financial support to sustainable, community-based humanitarian programs designed to help the people who live in remote regions of the world. This foundation carries on Alex's spirit of adventure.

ALCF Board of Directors

Jennifer Lowe-Anker, President
Jennifer Lowe-Anker, President

Jennifer established the ALCF in December of 1999 after the death of her late husband Alex Lowe. She is an artist and author residing in Bozeman, Montana with her husband, Conrad Anker.

Conrad Anker, Vice President
Conrad Anker, Vice President

World class mountaineer, Conrad Anker is a professional athlete, employed by The North Face. His resume of alpinism is augmented by conservation and humanitarian activism.

Pete Athans
Pete Athans

One of the world's foremost high-altitude mountaineers, Pete has summited Mount Everest seven times, and has appropriately earned the moniker "Mr. Everest". He and his wife Liesl Clark direct and oversee The Magic Yeti Libraries and Pete has taught and directed at KCC.

Philip Henderson
Philip Henderson

A native of California, Philip started his outdoor career as a whitewater guide on the Stanislaus river and full-time employee at an outdoor retailer. Phil worked for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) for more than 20 years instructing whitewater kayaking, canoeing, and rafting; backpacking; backcountry skiing; and rock climbing trips throughout the Western United States, Kenya, and Tanzania. He also served as the school’s Whitewater Program Director for 12 years in Vernal, Utah,  and as Equipment Manager in Patagonia, Chile, for three years.

His passion for outdoor recreation, education and climbing has provided him with opportunities to travel the world, and to climb and ski some of the world’s highest peaks including Denali, Kilimanjaro, and Mt Kenya.  Philip makes sure that his outdoor career includes volunteer time. Over the past two and half decades he has volunteered for several youth programs in the US, exposing young people from around the country to our natural environment.  Working in the outdoor industry outside the US has provided him with opportunities to help bring technical skills training to guides and porters around the world. For six consecutive years, working with the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation (ALCF) and the Khumbu Climbing Center (KCC) in Nepal, he helped train Nepali trekking guides and high altitude mountain guides, imparting valuable climbing and leadership skills. In 2012 he was a member and team leader of the North Face/National Geographic Everest Education Expedition and became one of few African Americans to summit Denali in 2013.   In 2018 he also led an all African American ascent of Mt Kilimanjaro.  

Currently living in Cortez Colorado with his wife Brenda, daughter Bahati, and works as a repair  and outreach specialist at Osprey Backpacks.  He is an active member of the Alex Lowe Charitable Foundation Board, and the Alzar School DEI Advisory committee and Risk Management Committee.   He has a strong passion for being outside and providing positive and inclusive opportunities for all people to get outside.  When not working he spends time canoeing, skiing, ice climbing, mountain biking gardening and listening to music.

Dawa Yangzum Sherpa
Dawa Yangzum Sherpa

Dawa Yangzum Sherpa is from Rolwaling Valley which is west from the Everest region in Nepal. She is a professional mountain guide and became the first Nepali woman to climb Makalu and the first Asian woman to pass the International Federation of Mountain Guides Association (IFMGA) certification. She is one of ten women in the world with this certification so she can guide internationally all over the world. She guides in Russa, South America, and the US, especially in Alaska. She also recently guided the National Geographic Scientific Expedition in 2019 on Everest to install a weather station. She focuses on guiding and teaching and personally does her own climbing focusing on smaller very technical peaks doing first ascents.

She is a global athlete with the North Face and the first Nepali to represent an international company. She hopes that this impacts the perception of climbers from being workers to being athletes who can work internationally. She hopes this inspires the younger generation especially as a woman. She helps with the ’Stop Girl Trafficking’ Program of the AHF by providing outdoor education for the young women at the KCC. For nine months out of the year she is busy guiding and then donates her time to her community by volunteering for the Nomad Clinic’s medical camps in remote districts like Dolpo and Humla.

Dr. Steve Mock
Dr. Steve Mock

Steve Mock is an accomplished alpinist and professor at University of Montana, Western in Dillon Montana where he resides. He is director of the Khumbu Climbing Center, a project of the ALCF.

Kimberly Ventre
Kimberly Ventre

Specializing in brand identity and marketing operations, Kimberly Ventre spent a career in advertising for some of the world’s best known companies. Kim’s current focus is on conservation, environment and animal protection. She co-founded Aldrich Browne Winery and serves as an advisor to the Whale Sanctuary Project and Ridge to River Animal Sanctuary. Home is San Francisco, California.

Sten Anderson
Sten Anderson
 
Gordon Wiltsie
Gordon Wiltsie
Jon Krakauer
Jon Krakauer

Jon Krakauer is an accomplished mountaineer and renowned author of 'Into Thin Air' and 'Into the Wild', along with many other successful titles. Jon also serves on the board of the American Himalayan Foundation.